On Dateline they had this story about food advertising to kids and how well it works. The reporter did a little experiment: show a bunch of preschoolers two cupcakes, one decorated with a frosting American flag (wouldn't eating the flag be as direspectful as, say, burning it?) and and one with Spider Man. They chose Spider Man every time, little commie bastards.
Then the newsteam upped the ante: what if the kids had to choose between a plain cupcake and a banana covered with Spider Man, Scooby Doo and Spongebob stickers? The tiny, adorable idiots overwhelmingly chose the banana.
Then, oh! then, they did the final test: sticker-free banana vs. rock with cartoon stickers and asked the tykes which one they would want for breakfast. Most of the kids chose the rock. Now, this wasn't scientific, they didn't give the stats, there was no double blind. Just a bunch of shots of kids pointing at decorated rocks. There was one hilarious exchange. The reporter chick kept repeating "No, for breakfast. No, for breakfast," and the little girl was like, yeah, I know, I want that one, Spongebob wouldn't steer me wrong.
So we shouldn't advertise to lil kids because they are dumb enough to fall for it? Whatevs, I'm going to let the free market sort this out.
LOL...kids *ARE* idiots. I'm sorry I missed that one. Unfortunately now creepy pervs will now be putting Spider-Man stickers on their you-know-whats.
ReplyDeleteah! man. I didn't even think of that.
ReplyDeleteomg, that sounds like an AWESOME segment! i wish i'd seen it.
ReplyDeletealthough it's not so much the kids that are the idots, but the parents. if a kid doesn't have access to a TV he's less likely to be all OMG SPONGEBOB!, you know?
(i was seriously embarassed as a child when i had no idea what MonChiChi's were. i had to have my aunt find out and tell me so i wouldn't look so uncool to the other girls in my class. and even after she told me, i was still not allowed to watch the show/own any toys. my mom put her foot down at Smurfs)